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The Cast
The events occurring in Koo's videos and the actions of the characters are undoubtedly dramatic, but there is no story to be found in them, nor any meaning attached to them. It is a total theatre of the absurd. If the viewer were to observe, however, the actions or the facial expressions of the characters depicted in her work, he or she would realize that the characters themselves are perplexed by the random events and the roles imposed upon them, yet at the same time they comply with the roles they have been assigned. This does not mean that they are performing throughout on the basis of a scenario, but rather that within a certain setup, they are being forced to act according to an unspecified set of rules. Naturally they do not immediately understand the nature of those rules. The viewer's attempt, therefore, to reconcile the sense of absurdity presented by the events that are unfolding turns into an investigation into what is really going on.
Koo's video work that incites this kind of psychological response in the viewer skillfully exploits the special nature of the looped single-channel images projected in the gallery space, as opposed to films being screened, as they are in a cinema, with a definite start time and finish time.
The viewer, as he or she observes the characters' psychological state, is without realizing it being submerged in that world, watching the never-ending cycle of rolling images in order to fathom the enigmatic setup created by Koo and the rules that have been imposed on the characters. The viewer is then forced gradually to recognize that the setup and the rules themselves that are the background to the events that are occurring are caricatures that possess the same quality of absurdity existing in urban life.
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